Men's Basketball's shooting turns cold in loss at Newberry

NEWBERRY, S.C. – The Catawba College men's basketball closed its calendar year on the road Wednesday night, netting a season-low 18 field goals to fall at Newberry, 68-54.

TEAM STATS

- A game removed from its best shooting performance of the season, Catawba (7-5, 5-4 SAC) struggled with a 30 percent mark from the field while Newberry (5-7, 2-4 SAC) sank 41.2 percent; the second half featured a wide 60.9-25.7 percent margin

- The blue and white attempted over a third of its shots from long range, only swishing a trio of three-pointers for a 14.3 percent clip against the Wolves' 26.3 percent

- The squads had similar success at the free throw line – in the area of 75 percent – but Newberry got to the charity stripe more often, winning the tally 21-15

- Catawba held a small advantage in the rebounding arena, 38-36, with a 14-7 edge in offensive boards

- Newberry recorded assists on 13 of its 21 field goals compared to Catawba's seven dimes on 18 made shots

INDIVIDUAL STATS

- Montraivis White led the way for Catawba with 11 points including three treys while dishing out a team-high three assists

- Ibra Athie crashed the boards with seven rebounds – three offensive – and joined White in double-figure scoring at 10 points

- Caleb Jones and Solomon Tucker each finished with nine points on identical performances of 2-for-5 from the floor, 5-for-6 at the foul line

- Justin Banks had Catawba's lone positive plus-minus of +4, logging six points as he and Tucker collected two blocks apiece

- Chase Daniel shattered his career high of six rebounds while draining three free throws and sharing the team lead in steals with two swipes

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Half

- The Wolves got out to an early lead thanks to Malakhi Stremlow hooking in the first bucket of the game and Devario Sheppard pouring in five points before of the initial media timeout

- A game-tying lay from Banks followed by two go-ahead baskets – the last an alley-oop from White – kept it close as neither team scored at a high rate

- Four minutes went by without a field goal until Jalen Hilliard got a tip-in to boost Catawba to a four-point cushion, its largest of the night

- Sheppard upped the ante at end of the half, going 5-for-5 on free throws with an alley-oop slam to tip the scales back toward the Wolves, 26-24, at the break

Second Half

- Stremlow carried Newberry to an 11-2 run to open the second stanza featuring an and-one conversion and back-to-back threes to force a Catawba timeout

- An eight-point burst from the hosts including Drew Robinson's five and James Lovorn's fast-break layup lifted the gap to 16

- The blue and white notched a swing of their own, shrinking the deficit by six on scores by Robinson and Tucker as well as a 2-for-2 charity stripe trip for Daniel

- Attempts to cut the score to single digits were quelled by Newberry, providing responses for every visitor bucket to mark the Wolves' first win over Catawba in five matchups

UP NEXT

After the holiday break, Catawba resumes South Atlantic Conference play on Saturday, Jan. 4 at home against Mars Hill at 4 p.m.